What: Maple Weekend tastes and tours at maple producers across New York state.When: March 22 and 23, as well as March 29 and 30, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.Where: Three maple producers in Chautauqua County will participate: Big Tree Maple in Lakewood, N.Y.; Clear Creek Farm in Mayville, N.Y.; and Fairbanks Maple in Forestville, N.Y.How much: Maple products will be available for sale.What you should know: Fairbanks Maple will also host a pancake meal from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. all days.For more information: Visit www.mapleweekend.com.

One more tasteAsbury Woods Nature Center also will demonstrate syrup making and serve fresh syrup over pancakes, during its Spring Maple Festival April 5-6.

It might seem to us like spring 2014 will never come, but the maple trees know better.

Thanks to a few recent 40-ish degree days, the ground is thawing just enough for the trees to drink from their roots, producing sugary sap to power the limbs, and -- yes it will happen -- leaves will emerge.

In the meantime, maple syrup producers all over the Northeast will gather thousands of gallons of the sweet stuff. Taps and houses will send a deluge of the sugar maple's nectar into huge vats where it will be heated and reduced -- from 40 gallons of sap to 1 gallon of pure, luscious maple syrup.

It's a drama that unfolds every year, and 17 regional maple producers want you to see it in action.

Thousands will descend on their sugarhouses this weekend for the 11th Annual Maple Taste & Tour. Visitors can see the producers' collection process, boiling equipment, burners, filters and bottlers.

They can sample the merchandise and take home a bottle or jar of maple syrup, maple cream, maple candy, maple peanuts, maple drops and more.

Some of the producers will even provide pancakes and sausage, including Casey Catalfu, owner of Sweet Traditions Sugarhouse & Pancake Restaurant in Corry.

"We just put in a small 50-seat restaurant," Catalfu said. "It's all-you-can-eat pancakes and specially made sausage and maple applesauce."

He said the restaurant serves pancake breakfasts $7 per adult and $4 for children 7 and younger. It has been open on weekends since Feb. 1 on a temporary food license that expires Sunday.

"We've been making maple syrup for years," Catalfu said. "But this is our first year for the restaurant. It's been growing every weekend.

"Hopefully we can do the same thing next year, maybe open earlier and run through the season."

Jan Woods, aptly named owner of Hurry Hill Farm in Edinboro, will show off her house, and this year has lots of new goodies for guests.

"We've added so much," Woods said, adding that she's particularly excited about a new smart-phone-enabled walking tour of the farm, including the sugarhouse, tapped trees and museum.

"It has 13 stops," she said of the tour, and visitors should leave themselves two hours to see everything.

Also new at Hurry Hill is a maple tasting room, where visitors can, for a $1 donation, get a plate full of maple products to taste, including syrup, barbecue sauce, maple mustard, maple cream (like peanut butter made with maple sap) and candy.

Once the sap starts moving, there's no time to waste. The elixir demands constant attention as it boils down, so maple producers are going to start losing sleep, if they haven't already.

"We'll make about 75 gallons a night," said David Yochim of Cabin by the Creek in Albion. "When the big run starts, we don't sleep for about 30 hours.

"Around one-third of the take comes from one good flow."

He said the super-cold winter doesn't necessarily affect how much sap they'll get.

"Those polar vortexes keep the ground frozen and are pushing the season back," but producers don't know what kind of year it will be until it's over.

"We just have to keep the buckets empty," Yochim said.

Chris Casbohm, co-owner of Casbohm Maple and Honey in Albion, said the season is late.

"We usually have made 100 gallons by this time," he said, though they've gotten a taste already.

"We've made 8 gallons of syrup so far this year," Casbohm said. "We had two runs, relatively small. We were surprised the sap was dark. Usually this early, it's light."

Taste and Tour visitors shouldn't worry about a shortage of syrup. All of the producers said they have plenty to sell, and there's more where that came from.

"We always have spring," Casbohm said.

JENNIE GEISLER can be reached at 870-1885 or by e-mail. Visit her food blog at GoErie.com/blogs/loaves. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNgeisler.

What: Maple Weekend tastes and tours at maple producers across New York state.When: March 22 and 23, as well as March 29 and 30, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.Where: Three maple producers in Chautauqua County will participate: Big Tree Maple in Lakewood, N.Y.; Clear Creek Farm in Mayville, N.Y.; and Fairbanks Maple in Forestville, N.Y.How much: Maple products will be available for sale.What you should know: Fairbanks Maple will also host a pancake meal from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. all days.For more information: Visit www.mapleweekend.com.

One more tasteAsbury Woods Nature Center also will demonstrate syrup making and serve fresh syrup over pancakes, during its Spring Maple Festival April 5-6.